Tips and hints to aid you in achieving balance in your life

Monthly Archives: May 2015

Yesterday, In Romania , we celebrated „Dragobete’s Day”, which is our Valentine’s Day. We had it even before we knew about V Day, but most of the people living in the city did not do anything special. After all this V Day fuss started in our country, we also start celebrating our „Dragobete’s Day”. We try to make it less commercial, but is a lost war.

I don’t celebrate V Day because I think that V day is everyday. You need to show and tell the loved ones everyday that you love them and care about them. Flowers and gifts will make you a better person maybe for one day. This is my philosophy and I don’t expect that everyone agrees with me.

So it was just a coincidence when I made this dessert. I wanted to put it on my blogg before any celebration, but a stupid cold kept…

What is love?” is perhaps one of the most pondered about questions of our existence. Is it a feeling? An emotion? Is it who we are? Is it something we all feel? Love can make us feel and do many different things in our lives and today we’re going to explore the idea that there may be two types of love: healthy love and unhealthy love.

Types of Love

To set up the context for this exploration, let’s quickly define what’s going on here. Generally we hear love defined as either conditional or unconditional. Conditional love would be loving something based on a certain set of conditions being met. i.e. “I only love this person if they do this for me, if they don’t, then I don’t love them.”

Unconditional love would be more so “regardless of your choices and the fact that they may have caused me to experience painful emotions, I still love you because I recognize the purpose of our journey.” Note, this does not mean unconditional love means sacrificing, staying in unhealthy relationships or abuse etc. It simply means the feeling of love is always there. Like a mother or father loving their child.

Healthy Love Versus Unhealthy Love

Leaving the ideas of conditional and unconditional love aside for a moment, let’s look at two types of love.

Unhealthy love can be seen as giving up aspects of yourself simply to please someone that you might be with. It can also come when you depend on the other person or need them for your own happiness or joy. Unhealthy love can be addictive and keep you locked up in stagnant periods of life where you use this form of love to avoid moving past your own challenges. Simply, unhealthy love is more about what the mind’s idea of love is. It can often involve playing games, manipulation, sacrifice and so on, all of which you will notice is quite draining to do, yet you can’t let it go.

Healthy love is something that is mutual between two people and no one gives themselves up to experience it. It is based on a feeling within versus what’s going on on the outside. It’s about allowing your partner to go through their own experiences and not judge them. Support them and understand them regardless of if they may have triggered a button within you. Together, you are open, can communicate and grow. You don’t need each other but simply work as a team to move through life.

How To Experience Healthy Love

The bottom line is, whatever experience you are having now is totally fine. Why? Because even if it isn’t entirely what you want, it plays the role of showing you how you feel when you are outside of your soul’s desires. Accept the experience you have right now and thank it for showing you another color of life.

To transform your experience of love, look at the many facets of unhealthy love and see if any apply to you. If they do, reflect on each piece and find the source of why you feel it’s there. For example if you feel you are addicted to your partner or need them around, ask yourself why that is. Writing things down and reflecting on it or talking to a person with experience in moving past the challenge can also help.

In the end you are looking to find out why you are feeding that need for the other person (or whatever challenge is unique to you). It could be because you don’t feel complete within yourself. It could be because of a past pain or reluctance to put yourself out there. Whatever the case may be, as you reflect and become aware of it you understand more about yourself and in turn can choose to move beyond it and process those emotions.

Yes you are right, I am missing my yoga retreat breakfast of Kitchari, so I have just made some, It is easy. Kitchari is a delicious and nutritive whole food from India that is known for its properties to detox the body and balance the three doshas (constitutions): Vata, Pitta and Kapha. This ayurvedic dish is used by yogis who want to cleanse the body and soul in a gentle manner, kitchari supply enough nutrients while removes toxins stored in bodily tissues and restores systemic balance.
Ayurveda believes that all healing begins with the digestive tract, and kitchari can give it a much-needed rest from constantly processing different foods while providing essential nutrients. Its mixture of spices is believed to kindle the digestive fire, the Ayurvedic description for your innate digestive power, which can be weakened by poor food combinations.
Kitchari is made with mung beans or lentils, basmati rice or barley, seasonal vegetables, ghee, and spices.
Add whatever seasonal vegetables you have on hand to complete the dish. Consider zuchini, burdock root, carrots, kale, spinach, sweet potato. The key is to use what’s available locally because Ayurveda is linked to the natural transition of the seasons. Go light on the salt in this recipe, allowing the natural flavours of vegetable stock.
Kitchari tastes like a cross between a creamy rice cereal and a light dal, or lentil soup. If it is a cold, blustery day or you are feeling under the weather, a steaming bowl of this classic Indian comfort food can both warm up your bones and restore sagging energy.
Ingredients:
1-cup basmati rice (I used black rice today as that is what I had!)
½ cup mung dal or lentils
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 teaspoons grated/minced ginger
1 chopped medium onion
3 teaspoons kitchari spice mix (cumin seeds, tumeric, mustard seeds, ginger, garam masala, natural mineral salt)
2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter)
6 cups water
1-2 cups chopped vegetables
Cooking instructions:
Wash rice and mung dal and soak overnight
Drains soak water.
In a medium saucepan warm the ghee, saute the onion, garlic and ginger, add the kitchari spice mixture and sauté for one-two minutes. Add rice and mung beans and sauté for another couple of minutes. Add 6 cups of water and bring to a boil. When kitchari has come to a boil reduce the heat to medium-low, cover an cook until it is tender, approximate 30-45 minutes. Add vegetables to your kitchari: the longer cooking such as carrots halfway through the coking and vegetables that cook faster such as leafy greens near the end. Add more water if needed.
Garnish with coriander and fresh grated ginger if you like and ENJOY